Entomology. Ranting. Nerdery.

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Solitary bees

I really love this video about digger bees, or a solitary group of bees common in North America. Sadly, when you look for information about this group, most of what you get is information on how to kill them when they make little mounds in your lawn.

No! Embrace the bees! (Metaphorically, anyway.)

You may want to click through to vimeo and watch this in the HD version–it’s lovely!

I had to identify these for a friend who runs a campground. She was at first worried about them,but after I explained what they were, and why they weren’t a threat to her campers (unlike the yellowjackets and bald face hornets) she left them alone.

That is a really complicated question Joy, since it depends on the kind of insect, and what kind of information you want.
I am guessing that you want to tag them to try to recapture them later, but don’t need to identify individual insect specimens.
For larger insects, you can use nail polish–here’s an example:

For little insects like bees, you might try dusting them with UV powder–then you can see if you’ve captured them before by holding them under a black light.

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